RESIDENCES IN AMERICA AND BRITAIN. 31 



tions. In America the country has not been long possessed 

 by the present owners, and property does not necessarily de 

 scend in the same line ; and if to these causes be added the 

 high price of labour, and the scarcity of capital, the state of 

 the residences will be sufficiently accounted for. Dr Hosack 

 has great merit in what he has accomplished, but it is mockery 

 to compare his grounds, in point of embellishments, with the 

 fine places in Britain, which have originated from circum 

 stances which America is not likely soon to experience. 



Throughout the whole of my transatlantic tour, the inhabi 

 tants of the country manifested perfect indifference to the 

 beauties of nature. It was rarely I could learn the name of 

 a plant, with the exception of trees. Nurserymen, seedsmen, 

 and farmers were, generally, unacquainted with varieties, and, 

 with exception of two or three individuals, no one seemed in 

 terested in the matter. Rhododendrons grow as plentifully 

 in many parts of the Eastern States as furze in Britain, yet I 

 saw vast numbers of this plant shipping at Liverpool for Phi 

 ladelphia, although millions of the same variety could have 

 been obtained for the trouble of lifting, at no great distance 

 from the city. Gardens and nurseries were overrun with 

 weeds, and did not display beauty either in decoration or ar 

 rangement. 



Hyde Park is also celebrated for its agriculture, which I 

 found under the charge of a gentleman from Fifeshire, Scot 

 land, a person on excellent terms with himself. The farm 

 offices, which are extensive, would be considered good in 

 most situations, and were the best I saw in America. There 

 was a young hawthorn hedge, well kept, and in a thriving 

 state. The cattle consist of imported short-horns, or their 

 descendants, and one or two of the best cows were tolerable 

 specimens of that breed. The sheep were said to be a mixture 

 of the Leicester and Cotswold breeds ; the pure blood of the 

 former not having been found to answer. The flock w r as 

 miserably low in condition, and the ewes were followed by 

 large, though not fat-looking, lambs. 



However well the short-horned breed of cattle, and im 

 proved Leicester sheep, may have been found to answer in 

 some parts of Britain, it is doubtful if the farmers of the State 



